Shocking claim about Russia… He tried to kill a Russian agent in the US.
As Russia continues its attacks on Ukraine, Putin appears to be focused on his secret enemies abroad. The assassination of Aleksandr Poteyev, a former Russian agent and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) informant, was allegedly planned in Florida, USA. “For Putin, the red lines are long gone,” said Marc Polymeropoulos, a former CIA officer who oversaw operations in Europe and Russia. He wants all these men dead.
The alleged assassination failed, but it turned into a tit-for-tat situation between the United States and Russia, followed by sanctions and expulsions, including top intelligence officials in Moscow and Washington.
The assassination target in question was Russian intelligence officer Aleksandr Poteyev, who was the source of information for the investigation that led to the capture of 11 spies living under cover in suburbs and cities in 2010.
10 OF 11 SPECIES ARE ARRESTED
With Poteyev providing information, ten of the 11 spies were arrested and deported to Russia as part of the investigation.
That is why Russia’s attempt to assassinate Poteyev appears in the book “Spies: The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West.” The book is by Calder Walton, a Harvard national security and intelligence specialist.
Putin, a former KGB officer, makes no secret of his stern stance toward those who quit intelligence, especially those who help the West. The 2018 Skripal poisoning by Russian agents in Salisbury, England, was a sign of Moscow’s border-crossing tactics, raising fears it would not hesitate to do the same on American shores. The attack, in which nerve gas was used to infect Skripal and his daughter, sparked a wave of diplomatic deportations around the world.
HE EXPECTS REVENGE
Not surprisingly, Putin’s next target is Poteyev. Putin had long promised to punish Poteyev. However, before Poteyev was arrested, he fled to the United States, where the CIA relocated him as part of a top-secret program to protect former spies. However, in 2011 Moscow sentenced Poyetev to prison in absentia.
Poteyev appeared to have disappeared, but Russian intelligence sent agents to the United States to find him. In 2019, the Russians carried out an elaborate operation to find Poteyev, forcing a scientist from Oaxaca, Mexico to help. Héctor Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes was an unlikely spy. He studied microbiology and later earned a PhD in microbiology from the University of Giessen in Germany.
A Russian official asked Fuentes to take an apartment where Poteyev lived, just north of Miami Beach. Instructions not to rent the apartment on his behalf, Fuentes paid a colleague $20,000 to do so.
assassination failed
Fuentes traveled to Moscow in February 2020, where he met again with a Russian official who described Poteyev’s vehicle to him. However, Fuentes could not cope with the operation. He was ordered not to take photographs, not to take notes, and not to keep this evidence.
Fuentes tried to flee to Mexico two days after the failed assassination attempt, but US Customs and Border Protection agents stopped him and called his phone and found a photo of Poteyev’s vehicle. After Fuentes was arrested, he gave details of the plan to US investigators.
“We cannot allow a foreign power to interfere in our democratic process,” President Biden said when announcing the sentences at the White House.